Whitelaw on Paisley

Marc Mulholland continues his Northern Ireland Lecture series at his excellent Daily Moiders

Lecture hand-out 7 contained an interesting quote. When Stormont was prorogued on 25 March, William Whitelaw, the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, had little clear idea of what to do next. The loquacious conspiracy-fan, Cecil King, recorded a meeting with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, three days later:

“I was treated with the greatest friendliness and confidence. The gist of what he had to say was that in the end there had to be a united Ireland. With this in mind one must not say too often that the border is in question … I understood Whitelaw to say that he saw Paisley as the future leader of Northern Ireland.” [The Cecil King Diary 1970 – 1974 (Jonathon Cape, 1975)]